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Teaching English in China

As someone who’s had 4 friends, all with real degrees, TEFL certificates, and clean background checks, to teach in China, I can tell you that if you are working there as a teacher or have the desire to, don't. It is not only a scam but a nightmare.

Chinese locals often recruit teachers or recent grads with the promise of getting them working visas upon arrival or prior to their first paycheck. Of course once the teacher is there, they do not execute on this promise, nor do they give the teacher a reimbursement of their flight to go back to their home country. Excuses and incompetence matched with kindness and guilt are all shown to the teacher by the school and recruiter, along with a plea for them to stay because “the children love them,” which most of the time is true, so the teacher also get emotionally attached to their work.

Promises for getting real working visas are pushed back month after month, and the teacher is left between a rock and a hard place “I’m scared to leave my job because they keep telling me they will get me a real visa” or “I don’t have any money to go back home because they keep docking my pay or paying me late”.

Of course there are also the agencies that promise the recruit they are allowed to work as a teacher with a business visa, (as it is easier for the agency give), and then call the police on the teacher, when they tell the teacher that “per agreement” the teacher has to pay the agent a percentage of their monthly check as a “fee” for finding them work. These agents have partners working as police and immigration officers.

I can go on and on about the crazy and absurdity I’ve heard from my friends who were arrested, tortured in jail and lied to about how long they were going to be in there, and then deported, but I’ll end it here. Just don’t work in China.